Solar Temple • A Gift That Should Have Been Reserved for the Great Lights [LP]

Planet earth once hosted a great civilization that has since vanished, leaving only subtle traces for those able to see. The people of this ancient world were keen observers of the cosmos and able to manipulate space-time to propel psychic rafts and travel through the solar system collecting raw materials. Eventually an awareness developed of the massive black hole in the middle of our galaxy, whose circling clockwork that slowly draws in all matter became a fixture of a great societal religious cult. The high priests of primordial earth commissioned an expedition to travel to the inner sanctum of this gaping maw of antilight. A huge ceremony celebrated the launch of this expeditionary raft. After passing the multiple gravitational orbits of the earth and the planets, the vessel drifted through outer space to eventually get pulled into the hole. The collective consciousness of the travelers deconstructed and reconstituted as gods in a higher plane, whose deep historical memory was passed down unto ancient man in the form of the great religions of this world.

Solar Temple’s new album “A Gift That Should Have Been Reserved for the Great Lights” forms the soundtrack to an imaginary film following the story of these cosmonauts. Starting with the great ritual of ascendancy, accompanied by an incantation of a priest, the launch and subsequent launch and breaking through the gravitational barrier of earth. In the second movement, we experience the passing of the great planets and the push and pull of their gravitational forces. The third movement narrates the experience of travelling through deep space, when after a while the sublime terror of the great black hole begins to draw the vessel towards its great void. After the great torrent of deconstructing dimensions, we enter a plane of cosmic bliss and elevated being.

Inspired by the pioneering soundtrack work of Popul Vuh and Goblin and 2001: A Space Odyssey, O. Iskandr and M. Koops of Solar Temple have developed a raw and spontaneous form of composition to give form to this experimental piece. Recorded in a few sessions between 2020 and 2022, the album took some time to mix and master fitting to the theme. Utilizing everything from old synths and tape echoes to a mountain of percussion and household appliances, the album’s extremely layered sound was enhanced by a free-flowing mix session through an old console with several distortion and echo effects could be blended and manipulated in real time, yielding a final mix that was done during the runtime of the album.

Solar Temple was started in 2016 and started as a psychedelic black metal project, and has since evolved to cover genres such as psychedelic rock, krautrock, drone, ambient and now electronic soundtrack music. Consisting of core duo O. Iskandr (Dool, Iskandr, Turia and Galg among others) and M. Koops (Fluisteraars, Nusquama and Galg among others) the project has always had the aim to create original and experimental pieces of music. Doing their live debut on the Roadburn Redux edition of 2021, where they presented the psychedelic rock piece “The Great Star Above Provides”, and performing at Roadburn 2022 a collaborative piece “Embers Beget the Devine” with compatriots Dead Neanderthals, live shows of the group are both rare and highly memorable.